Parergon Editor’s Foreword

It has been a great pleasure working with Chris Jones on this collection of articles, which has such significance for our understanding of settlement in New Zealand, and, by extension, in other European-based colonies. The current popularity of ancestry stories in our media testifies to the enduring importance of the past in the lives of modern people and peoples. This collection, in a series of case studies, puts us in touch with the men and women who preserved material items that connected them with their European heritage. In some cases, the significance of the artefact was not always well understood, or even appreciated, and it falls to modern scholars to unlock the treasures contained in New Zealand collections and bring them to the notice of a readership that extends across the world, both in the circulation of the print version of Parergon, and online.

I would like to thank Chris Jones for making my work as Editor both easy because of his guest editorship, and exciting because of the new material and fresh interpretations brought to our attention in these articles. Lesley O’Brien, as always, has worked tirelessly to ensure that the technical aspects of publication are as near perfect as possible, and UniPrint has produced a handsome volume. I hope this Special Issue will gain the wide readership it deserves.